


Resolutions

by Trish47



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Champagne, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Friends to Lovers, Gift Giving, Kissing at Midnight, Little Black Dress, New Year's Eve, New Year's Fluff, New Year's Kiss, No Pregnancy, No Smut, background finnpoe - Freeform, bow tie, set during covid times, socially distanced party, zipper malfunction, zoom party
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-13 01:08:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29144952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trish47/pseuds/Trish47
Summary: Rey, Ben, and their friends hold a video call New Year's Eve party to celebrate the end of 2020. To make things fancy, Rey changes into a dress and gifts Ben a bow tie. If only he knew how to tie it.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 6
Kudos: 65
Collections: World Between Worlds Holiday Cookie Exchange 2020





	Resolutions

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kate_Reid](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kate_Reid/gifts).



> Thanks to [HarpiaHarpyja](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HarpiaHarpyja/pseuds/HarpiaHarpyja) for giving this a quick beta and to [kate_reid ](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kate_Reid/pseuds/Kate_Reid) for the prompt in the first place!

After a long day of cooking and sanitizing the kitchen, it feels good to unbutton her chef whites to get a little airflow going. There are still two plates sitting under the warmers, but there should be more. Many more. Keeping her restaurant closed on New Year’s Eve is something Rey never thought she’d do, but this year -- with a global health crisis in full-swing -- she decided she’d stick to home deliveries.

  
It’s a lovely benefit that all of those deliveries had to be made by eleven o’clock, leaving her and her friends time to ring in the New Year together via a video call. While it’s not the same as crowding around the flatscreen in Rose and Paige’s apartment, champagne in one hand and an hors d'oeuvre in the other, she’s just glad that all of her favorite people are happy, healthy, and able to countdown to a fresh start together.

  
At least there’s one friend she gets to spend the night with. Having him in her work bubble has been a true blessing. There’s isn’t any other face she’s seen in the better part of a year without a mask covering the lower half.

  
“I’m almost ready,” she greets. “Deliveries go okay?”

  
He nods, slipping out of his coat and scarf. Snow dusts the top of his beanie, which he adds to the pile of outerwear, ruffling up his long, dark locks with a gloved hand. Those are the last things he removes.

  
“Everyone’s got shrimp cocktail, meatballs, and a stack of veggies and hummus. Plus the champagne,” he reports, locking the front door and twisting the blinds so it’s clear they’re closed. Even with the signs outside, there are always some patrons who seem unable to read and have to be firmly turned away.

  
“Excellent,” Rey returns with a smile. “I just want to change. Bring up the call?”

  
She hustles into the rear of the building. Her office is small but sufficient, filled with shelves of cookbooks and inspiring autobiographies, a big whiteboard where she can map out her seasonal menus and ingredient orders, and plenty of potted herbs. Rey unhooks the dress bag she’d brought along tonight from the back of the door and starts to remove her other clothes. It’s a simple dress, really: a black, off the shoulder cocktail number with long sleeves and a subtle sweetheart neckline. She’d purchased it years ago at a secondhand shop for a college party but never got to wear the thing.

  
Now there’s reason to.

  
The only problem is that she can’t seem to get the zipper to cooperate. For a solid thirty seconds she bends and twists, tugging at both the velvety, black fabric and the tiny metal zip, but no matter what she does, she can’t get it to shut.

  
“Rey?”

  
Ben’s voice is distant, but still audible. He must already have everyone online.

  
Abandoning the zipper, she rushes to let her hair down, choosing to secure only a single strand from either side at her crown. The rest she finger-combs, hoping the soft waves aren’t too frizzy after an afternoon tucked underneath a bandana. The last things she adds are a swipe of red lipstick and a dash of mascara: makeup is something she typically passes on, but if she can’t get a little ritzy on New Year’s, when can she?

  
Clutching the sides of her dress near her lower back, she exits the office and makes her way out to the bar where Ben has his laptop up and running. He’s also brought their dishes out to the bartop and is in the middle of opening their own champagne bottle.

  
He turns just as the top pops free, and the towel he had over the neck slips, sending fizzy liquid streaming from the opening and onto the floor. His mouth -- already open -- drops even more as he corrects his mistake.

  
“Crap,” he mutters, bending to wipe up the mess.

  
“Seems we’re both malfunctioning tonight,” Rey observes with a kind smile. “When you’re done, do you think you could help me zip this?”

  
Ben glances up at her, nodding sharply as he wipes the same spot again and again. “Sure.”

  
“Rey!”  
  
  
Her name is a long, single note of greeting. She whips around to the computer screen and waves at the camera. “Hey, Finn!” That’s when she notices others have joined in on the call too. “Hey Rose, Paige. Dameron is that you back there? I thought you had to work a late shift?”

  
“Swapped with someone at the last minute,” he says, squatting down behind Finn’s chair in their eating space to say hello.

  
“Glad you could make it,” Rey says.

  
“What’s with the dress?” Rose asks.

  
The blush that paints her cheeks accompanies a self-deprecating smile. “Guess I’ve grown a bit since college.”

  
“That’ll happen when you run a restaurant instead of subsisting off of ramen and tuna,” her friend returns.

  
Rey files that away as a compliment. Starting a business of any nature is hard, but when it’s a restaurant and it opened only six months before global disaster struck, it’s sink or swim. Thanks to her quick thinking and Ben’s support working as her sous chef, dishwasher, and delivery man all in one, she didn’t have to shut down prematurely.

  
Suddenly, the man in question is at her back, staring at the screen and offering a wave to Poe. When he lowers his hand, he places it on her waist, gripping the fabric. “I’ve got this.”

  
As he zips the dress, the front pulls tight against her chest. She sucks in a breath as his fingers brush along her spine and finish securing the back.

  
“Thanks,” she whispers, coughing once.

  
“You look fantastic,” Finn tells her, to which the others murmur their agreements and nod their heads.

  
“You do,” Ben concurs quietly. “It makes me feel underdressed.”

  
His dark jeans and white button down aren’t exactly what she would consider casual wear. She’d told him long ago that he could come to work in joggers and a t-shirt if he wanted; it was only the two of them after all. Getting dressed for work, he’d claimed, was one little bit of normalcy he wanted to keep.

  
Rey had anticipated he’d dress in something with a collar, which is why she came prepared.

  
“I have something to help with that,” she says with a grin. She reaches behind the bar’s counter and feels around for the slim box she brought along. Once she has it in hand, she passes it to him.

  
His eyes dart back and forth. “You got me a gift?”

  
She shrugs. “You got me those knives for Christmas. But don’t get too excited: this isn’t anywhere near as fancy.”

  
“What is it?” Paige asks, craning closer to the screen. Her face takes up two-thirds of the box on the conferencing app. “Open it, Solo!”

  
He does. She didn’t bother with wrapping paper, but she did use a few pieces of kitchen twine to secure it closed. Ben slips the twine over one edge and wiggles it free, then lifts the lid to reveal her gift. A smile curves his full lips.

  
“Red.”

  
She bounces from foot to foot -- still clad in a pair of Converse despite her dress; there’s just no way she’s wearing heels after cooking all day on her feet -- and asks, “Do you like it?”

  
He pinches the silk between his fingers and removes the bow tie from the box. “It’s bold.”

  
Her brow scrunches. “Too bold?”

  
“No,” he corrects, smoothing his thumb over the fabric. “I love it.”

  
“Show us!” Poe demands, moving closer to the camera just as Paige had done.

  
Ben rolls his eyes and lifts the bow tie from the center, letting the ends dangle from either side. Several “oos” and “awws” echo through the screen.

  
Then Ben nudges her hand and angles his body away from the screen so that only she can see his face and mouth. “Rey, I uh. . .I want to wear this, but I don’t know how to tie it.”

  
“You’ve never worn a bow tie?” she asks, loudly enough that the other men in their party scoff in response.

  
Poe understands. “He’s more the skinny-tie type.”

  
Ben flashes a glare at the camera, though his gaze softens again when he returns it to her. One hand ruffles his hair. He looks almost sheepish. “No, never in my life,” he tells her. “I don’t have a clue about how to tie it.”

  
“Uh. . .” She had not thought this would be an obstacle to seeing him dressed up for the occasion. She peeks around his muscled chest and locates Finn on the screen. “Can you show me how this is done?”

  
Finn nods enthusiastically. “Sweetie,” he says to Poe, “go get one so I can demo.”

  
Ben tries to wave all of them off. “No, that’s not necessary. I can look up a video later and learn myself.”

  
“You’ve got to wear it tonight, Ben,” Rose returns, taking a bite of a meatball Rey sent over. She moans over the call. “This is freaking amazing. Oh my god, Rey, I could bathe in this sauce.”

  
Rey smiles and giggles at the compliment. Rose was her first backer when she decided to crowd fund money and resources for her first food truck back in college, then signed on as her backseat business partner when it came time to open the restaurant. Finn and Poe were jealous of not being able to claim the first spot.

  
“Okay, here we go,” Poe says when he comes back with a black bow tie in hand. He hands it off to Finn, then dutifully buttons his shirt up to the collar.

  
Finn stands and reangles the laptop so that Rey can see what he’s doing while he gives instructions. Rey takes the bow tie from Ben’s hand and loops it around his neck, modeling the way Finn has it draped with one side longer than the other.

  
While she works, Ben’s eyes stay focused on her face. His breathing is shallow, his body almost statuesque with how little he’s moving. She sticks her tongue out of the corner of her mouth as she concentrates -- something his gaze catches immediately.

  
“Now,” Finn says after they’ve made it through the major steps. “This is the part that makes it perfect. You’ve got to tug both ends in opposite directions and play with it until it looks the way you want it to.”

  
“I should be able to do that,” Ben offers, reaching one hand toward his throat.

  
Rey slaps it away like she’s getting rid of a bug. “I’m finishing what I started, thank you very much.”

  
There are snickers from the screen behind her. Paige, well into her second glass of champagne, says, “Hush, Ben. This is your golden opportunity. Your moment.”

  
“What the heck is she talking about?” Poe asks his partner.

  
Rey wonders the same thing, especially when color flames across his cheeks and he tries to lean away from her. Rey’s index finger crooks under the secured neckpiece and doesn’t let him retreat. “What shining moment is she referring to, Ben?”

  
Rose, meanwhile, is trying to shoo her sister away from the camera and has put the mic on mute to presumably prevent any further damage. It only makes Rey feel all the more intrigued by the sudden announcement and her friend’s reaction. He’s always so well composed, so eloquent with his words; now it looks like he’s forgotten how to form them.

  
"It's nothing."

  
"I'd like to be the judge of that," she says, still fiddling with the bow tie. It looks astonishingly good for her first ever attempt, yet her fingers linger. His body heat warms her hands, and she's reluctant to pull away so soon, especially when he's visibly squirming with whatever topic Paige brought up.

  
"I--"

  
"Guys, guys, guys," Finn says. "They're starting the countdown!"

  
How in the world had the time passed so quickly? She knew the last deliveries had gone out right at the eleven o'clock cutoff, and then Ben had had to deliver their friends' portions on his way back while she cleaned the kitchen, but she thought there would be more time to celebrate pre-ball drop.

  
Ben pulls away successfully this time, enlarging the screen Finn's shared so they can watch the ball drop live. He passes Rey her glass of champagne.

  
Like the rest of this year, each second feels like a month passing as the crystalized ball sinks lower and lower on the pole. She's holding her breath, making a wish for the upcoming year, for what she wants most. Her last wish -- to open a restaurant -- had worked. Why can't she have another streak of good luck?

  
Ben's free hand slips into hers, squeezing. There's cheering in her ears and the first notes of "Auld Lang Syne" floating through the speakers. She missed the final second, but finished asking the universe for what she wants.

  
"Rey--"

  
Screw it. Sometimes, things can't be left to luck and good fortune. Sometimes, wishes need to be seized.

  
Rey sets the flute on the bar top, turns, and places one hand on Ben's chest. She pushes up onto her tiptoes and kisses him. He doesn't hesitate to return it; in fact, he'd already lowered his head as if he'd planned to do the same.

  
His kiss is gentle enough to drive her mad, slow enough to make her head spin, and sweet enough to send a zing of sugar shock down her spine. It’s also so warm it makes her want to peel off the dress he helped her into earlier this evening. One hand cups the back of her head, fingers sliding into the hair at her nape. The other catches that syrupy feeling pooling at her lower back and slowly spreads it up to her shoulder, then down to her hip.

  
Her hands explore too, slipping from his solid chest and around his waist. He’s so. . .thick. It takes effort for her arms to encircle him, especially when he won’t let her press herself flush with his body, using his right hand on her hip to hold her still.

  
The kiss goes on so long that the others in their virtual party finish theirs and begin cheering, heckling, and whooping instead.

  
Rey smiles against his lips, and when he returns her grin, they pull away.

  
“Get it, Rey!” Rose calls.

  
“Get it, Solo!” Paige exclaims at nearly the same time.

  
“Finally!” Finn adds dramatically. “I was starting to think you’d never make a move.”

  
Rey isn’t sure if her friend is talking to her or to Ben. It doesn’t matter, really. They both made the first move.

  
Poe throws out: “Don’t stop on our account.” It earns him a backhanded smack from Finn that’s meant to communicate a clear “knock it off” message.

  
Rey still hasn’t stopped looking at Ben, pale cheeks flushed, lips pink and more pronounced than before. She’d like to see how swollen they’d get with a few bites.

  
“I guess the world didn’t end,” he murmurs, brushing hairs away from her face.

  
“Whaddya know?” she teases back. “Is this what Paige meant? Your ‘golden opportunity.’”

  
“Yes!” Paige confirms before Ben can blunder through an explanation.

  
Ben’s thumbs stroke circles into her obliques. “I’ve been trying to find a way to tell you for months now. But you were so busy with the restaurant, it didn’t seem like the right time.”

  
It’s endearing how he casually leaves out the fact that he, too, was busy trying to make sure her business didn’t sink in the wake of all the new regulations and shift in business approach. Maybe he’s right that a relationship wouldn’t have been her top priority since March, but looking back, she thinks about how many meals they shared at the end of their long nights, how they laughed and cried together for important and forgettable reasons, how they danced around each other both literally and figuratively. Is that so different from a relationship?

  
“Kiss her again!”

  
She laughs at his exasperated sigh. Then he hooks a finger over the laptop’s lid, directing his attention straight to the camera when he says, “That’s enough noise from the peanut gallery. Happy New Year, guys.”

  
To sounds of protest, he shuts the laptop, ending the call.

  
“That was rude,” Rey tells him without any heat behind it. She slides onto the stool, keeping her body turned in his direction, and crosses her arms. “They were giving you good advice, you know.”  
  


“That I should kiss you again?”

  
She nods. “I think maybe it should be your New Year’s resolution. To kiss me every day.”

  
Dimples appear on either side of his mouth. “I think the experts say it’s better to make a resolution with a partner. More likely to keep it that way.”

  
Her smile is so wide it almost hurts. “I think I could commit to kissing you every day.”

  
“Think?” A brow arches even as he moves closer.

  
Rey splits her knees, letting her dress hike up close to her hips. He moves into the space, already reaching up to tip her chin toward his face.

  
She shrugs. “I just thought resolutions were supposed to be hard. I don’t see how kissing you every day is going to be a challenge.”

  
He moves both hands to her shoulders, leaning his forehead against hers as he chuckles. Finally he says, “Why don’t we keep kissing and see what goal we can set tonight?”

  
“Deal,” she agrees, pressing up to do just that.

  
It just so happened that they lost count.

**Author's Note:**

> Most of my works are rated E, so it was nice to have some sweet, innocent fluff.  
> You can also follow me on Twitter @ GloveKinkQueen (if you're 18+).


End file.
